House prices surged by more than $500,000 in 207 Australian suburbs over the past three years, with owners reaping the benefits of the pandemic property boom and this year’s house price recovery.

The list of top performers includes some of Australia’s most expensive suburbs where owners have hit the property jackpot with prices growing by more than $1 million over that period, as well as more affordable suburbs where increased buyer demand has pushed prices up.
 
More than half of the 207 suburbs have a median house price of $2 million or more, with market uplift driving values in pricier areas even higher.
 
Vaucluse in Sydney’s eastern suburbs had the biggest gains, with the median house price growing by more than $3 million over three years.
 
Meanwhile, about a quarter of suburbs on the list only joined the $1 million club in the past three years.
 
Well-located suburbs with spacious properties have experienced strong growth recently, said Prop Track senior economist Angus Moore, with many home buyers valuing lifestyle factors over proximity to the CBDs of Australia’s largest capitals.
 
"One of the things we have seen throughout the pandemic is a bit of a premium placed on larger homes and homes close to amenities like beaches and national parks," he said.
 
"We’ve seen a bit of a revaluation of some of those more suburban areas, and the same is true for places like Adelaide and increasingly Perth and Brisbane."
 
While there were suburbs where prices grew by more than half a million dollars in every state except Tasmania and the Northern Territory, suburbs in NSW dominated, making up more than half of those on the list.
 
Of the top 50 suburbs by price growth in dollar terms, only seven were outside NSW.
 
About a fifth of the suburbs with gains of $500,000 or more were in Queensland, which Mr Moore attributed to the state’s strong price growth during the pandemic and resilience during the recent downturn.
 
South Australia and Western Australia each had 11 suburbs where prices grew by more than $500,000, all of which were in Adelaide and Perth.
 
"We saw a lot of buyers looking in those areas, looking for larger homes, less tied to Sydney or Melbourne and valuing the amenities that those cities provide," Mr Moore said.
 
The majority of suburbs with gains of $500,000 or more are found in capital cities, despite strong price growth in regional areas.
 
Prices in the regions are up 48% since the pandemic, compared to 29% across the capitals.
 
"Even though regional areas performed better across the pandemic, the fact that there are a lot more expensive suburbs in capital cities, and the fact that capital cities are larger, means more of the suburbs that have seen large increases will be in those areas," Mr Moore said.
 
Strong growth over the past three years coupled with already high house prices has meant median values rose by seven-figure amounts in some suburbs, earning homeowners a massive windfall.
 
There were 61 suburbs where prices increased by between $600,000 and $750,000 over the past three years.
 
Prices almost doubled in Hope Island on the Gold Coast and Jindabyne near the Snowy Mountains in NSW, while the leafy suburbs of Beaumont and Stonyfell in Adelaide's east were also top performers.
 
The majority of suburbs where prices rose between $550,000 and $600,000 were outside NSW, including two Adelaide suburbs Unley and Fullarton where prices grew $528,500 and $516,000, respectively.